Assessing Damage, Urging Action Chapter Four: The role of intelligence: intelligent counter-terrorism? 1. Introduction One of the most striking developments brought to the attention of the Panel is the increasingly central role that intelligence plays in modern counter-terrorist efforts. Intelligence plays an indispensable role in identifying, understanding and analysing terrorist threats, in providing important hints and leads for criminal investigations and in developing effective strategies to counter terrorism. Good intelligence has always been crucial to preventing, disrupting, or subsequently punishing, criminal activity. What is new is the fact that the work of the intelligence agencies has moved centre-stage in the panoply of counter-terrorist measures available to governments. This centrality is reflected in expanded powers of intelligence agencies, increasing international cooperation, and greater information sharing. A new significance has been accorded to the potential of intelligence to counter terrorism, and the Panel learnt that intelligence is now acted upon and used in an increasing variety of legal and administrative proceedings (see Chapters Five and Six). Government ministers and officials stressed the vital importance of sharing intelligence between countries, and the role of intelligence in identifying and disrupting possible terrorist acts before they are committed. The centrality of intelligence operations was prominently discussed at the Hearings in Australia, Canada, the European Union, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Panel also had the benefit of meeting privately with a number of senior government representatives where the importance of intelligence was a common theme. States have a duty to protect all persons subject to their jurisdiction, and no one could deny that good and reliable intelligence is an important tool for discharging that responsibility. Equally, no one could deny that transnational threats need to be countered by close cooperation between intelligence agencies. At the same time, no one could deny that the kind of secrecy required for effective intelligence carries with it risks. Even if the threat from terrorism changes in level and nature in future, it is unlikely that the primacy given to the role of intelligence will change. Advances in technology, 67